Movie Review: The Uninvited (2009)

by Hollis Jay

As I sat watching The Uninvited, one question kept crawling through my mind: Why do we, as Americas, have to remake every good movie we find and turn it into such crap? We consistently do it, especially with horror movies. Are we that hard up for new ideas? And even if we can't stop ourselves from remaking these movies-why do we have to mutilate them beyond recognition?

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The Uninvited starts off with an uneven pace. We are not sure if Anna is officially crazy or just a girl that needs to be saved. Frankly, I found myself not caring. Her pouty lips, profoundly pasty skin, and wide eyes do nothing to help her acting. Therefore, we do not become engaged in her character and as an outcome we are not scared with her or for her.
Directed by the Guard brothers, who didn't even watch the original movie before jumping into the remake, ones must wonder if their intention was to scare through the story. I did not find myself scared nor did I feel that the remake embraced the original movie. For those that don't know, the original movie was A Tale of Two Sisters, which was masterfully made by Kim Ji-woon. In the original movie, the atmosphere takes on a personality all its' own and although the remake tries its' hand at presenting its' surroundings in a surreal and beautifully sinister way it fails.

There is only one scene in the remake that even slightly qualified as being close to the original and that's being kind. Although the relationship with the sisters qualifies only enough to signify a partial section of the movie, it is relied upon to hold the entire movie together. We are never given a chance to explore the relationship between Rachel and Steven. We are never told how the relationship between employer and employee became intimate. And could the fact that Anna sees her father having sex with her mother's nurse be the incentive for such madness? Didn't she have to be troubled beforehand? Or are we meant to believe that she is such a delicate soul that she cannot deal with witnessing this partial offense? For all extensive purposes, I would stick with the original and only watch the remake if you plan on drinking.